Prasannan Parthasarathi is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Boston College. His previous publications include The Transition to a Colonial Economy: Weavers, Merchants and Kings in South India, 1720–1800 (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and The Spinning World: A Global History of Cotton Textiles, 1200–1850 (co-edited with Giorgio Riello, 2009).

• 1. Introduction; Part I. Setting the Stage: Europe and Asia before Divergence: 2. India and the global economy, 1600–1800; 3. Political institutions and economic life; Part II. The Divergence of Britain: 4. The European response to Indian cottons; 5. State and market: Britain, France, and the Ottoman Empire; 6. From cotton to coal; Part III. The Indian Path: 7. Science and technology in India, 1600–1800; 8. Industry in early nineteenth-century India; 9. Conclusion.

'We have been waiting for more than ten years since Pomeranz opened the debate on the Great Divergence between China and the West for the book that brings India into the discourse. This magnum opus comes from a scholar with the credentials in economics, the erudition in history and the literary style required to occupy the intellectual high ground for the decade to come.' Patrick O'Brien, FBA, London School of Economics